Unbuckling the mailbag:
Question: Tell me I did not just read in the L.A. Times that Auburn bounced back after their loss to Utah State last week. I was at that game and we did not lose that game. The final score was Auburn 42, Utah State 38.
College football mail bag: Those slippery final scores
Chris Dufresne takes time out (he gets two per half) each Friday during the season to answer questions on college football.
Auburn running back Michael Dyuer reacts following a win over Utah State… (Dave Martin / Associated…)
Sherry Hoggle
Answer: What!!!? Auburn came back and won? Like a lot of Tigers fans, I left the Utah State game early. So disgusted we were about to lose to a Western Athletic Conference team at home, I got in my car and drove with the radio off until I reached the Grand Tetons. I have been hiding out ever since in the woods, eating baked beans out of a can.
Knowing that, after Utah State, we had to face Mississippi State, a powerful Southeastern Conference team with a ferocious SEC defense that would not let us score any points, let alone 41, I have just emerged from isolation ready to face the world at 0-2.
Don't tell me, Sherry, we also somehow beat Mississippi State?
Don't tell me it was a goal-line stand.
We did!? And it was?
We're 2-0?
SEC Rules! War Eagle!!
Doubters quit hating on us!
Q: Wasn't California at Colorado the first game in Pac-12 history since it finished before USC played Utah?
Sam
A: No, Cal and Colorado was "non-league" because the game was scheduled before Colorado and Utah joined the Pac-12.
Oregon was also supposed to play Utah in a nonconference game this week, but dropped the Utes after Utah joined the conference.
Oregon will instead host Missouri State.
USC and Utah played the first Pac 12 game last week and the final score was 17-14, and then 23-14.
How much clearer could it be?
Q: Do the statistics Football Bowl Subdivision schools accumulate against teams like Charleston Southern, Norfolk State and Northwestern State count?
Is it true that all of the Atlantic Coast Conference teams have agreed to join the Pac-12 if they would be guaranteed either one game a year in Los Angeles or tickets to be in the audience for the taping of "The Price is Right"?
Jon Basalone
Brea
A: You bet those numbers count. Playing sub-division schools is a great way to pad your stats and kick-start a Heisman Trophy campaign.
That's why I've always maintained early-season college football stats are as meaningless as the win-loss record for a relief pitcher.
Or, maybe you don't know Rollie Fingers is in the baseball Hall of Fame with a lifetime record of 114-118.
Arkansas is averaging 51.50 points through two games, which ranks No. 3 this week in national scoring average.
"Souieee Pig!"
Except, the Razorbacks have played Missouri State and New Mexico.
Watch Oregon's national numbers soar next week after it hosts Missouri State. The key stat for Oregon this year, though, was Louisiana State 40, Oregon 27.
As for your second question, that's a brilliant thought.
You could have the ACC schools spin Drew Carey's wheel to determine the final score for games. That's pretty much what they do for Pac-12 games played in the Coliseum.
Q: As a Utah fan, we look forward to the "Holy War" every year, our annual rivalry game with BYU. My question is do others outside the state of Utah (e.g. you) perceive the rivalry as big as we do?
Jim Swilliam
Baltimore
A: I witnessed the "Holy War" firsthand in 2004 in Salt Lake City when Utah was trying to wrap up a perfect season and earn a Bowl Championship Series bowl spot.
Utah crushed BYU that day, 52-21, and I was on the field walking to the postgame news conference when I noticed a Utah fan holding up a sign reading, "Where's Your God Now?"
Wow.
I'm curious to see how the rivalry changes with both teams no longer in the Mountain West. Utah, of course, has joined the Pac-12 while BYU has gone independent in football. As Utah Coach Kyle Whittingham noted this week, there is no conference title on the line and the game isn't at the end of the season.
"There's a different flavor, different feel," Whittingham said on this week's Pac-12 conference call.
That doesn't mean sparks won't fly.
Whittingham: "I think it will remain every bit as intense."
Q: Though the Pac-12 may become the Pac-16, I have one major problem. The logo displays a mountain. Why?
Pac in Pac-12 means Pacific, meaning the Pacific Ocean. So shouldn't the logo be the Pacific Ocean?
Tomas Reyes
A: I think you're making a Pac-12 mountain logo out of a molehill. You want controversy? I hear if Oklahoma joins, the mountain will be replaced with the face of Barry Switzer.
Q: You made two references in Thursday's Times to Boise having beaten "ranked" Georgia, but it was a preseason ranking based on exactly zero games. Thus your characterization was very misleading. If Georgia ends up 6-7 again, will you still be giving Boise credit for having beaten a "ranked" SEC team?
Brian Fodera
Los Angeles
A: Yes. Walter Camp's Axiom on Football Common Sense says if a school is ranked on the day you defeated that school, you have heretofore defeated a ranked school. Even if that school becomes "unranked."
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